Articles/News with law enforcement tag

Investigations are underway and an arrest was made in unrelated school bus thefts in Oklahoma, Michigan and Louisiana in recent weeks. In at least two of the incidents, the keys were reportedly in the ignition when the buses were stolen.

Last fall, Simsbury (Conn.) Public Schools launched a stop-arm camera pilot program that district officials say returned "some very surprising results." The findings: With 3,100 school bus stops, there were only two potential violations.

Jonathan Modesitt is arrested following last week’s incident, in which Oregon State Police troopers say he dropped his pants after hitting the bus and tried to get on board with a gun. He faces multiple charges, including driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Several Montgomery County Public Schools buses are now equipped with automated cameras to record illegal passing. Officials say that the program will expand over the next few months and will target bus routes with the highest reports of violations. The fine for violations caught on camera is $125.

On Wednesday morning, officers respond to a report of a possibly impaired school bus driver. As a result of the investigation, a 71-year-old man is charged with impaired driving and operation of a motor vehicle over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood (0.08%).

A New Jersey woman recently pleaded guilty to operating a school bus with 25 students on board while she was impaired by alcohol in November 2011. During the trip home on that day, several students called their parents and expressed fear at the way she was driving.

For school bus drivers, vigilance is essential, but sometimes it has unexpected results.
That was the case in a recent incident in Miami in which a school bus driver reported a suspicious-looking vehicle following the bus.

Genesee Intermediate School District’s (ISD) transportation team provides information to Sgt. Artis White about daily occurrences of violations, and he and his troopers organize a one-day sting to monitor troublesome areas and issue citations. White and Genesee ISD Director of Transportation Services Chad Sexton discuss the specifics with SBF.

Grand Ledge (Mich.) Public Schools’ transportation department has partnered with local police, who cite motorists captured on camera running the buses’ stop arms, and the transportation staff is also working to inform the public of the state’s laws for driving around school buses through billboards and other media outlets. Transportation Supervisor John Legus discusses these and other initiatives with SBF.

A school bus driver is arrested and charged with child neglect after a child was choked unconscious by another child on her bus. Detectives say that the driver “failed to provide any assistance to the victim during or after the Oct. 15 attack.”

Nicholas John Miller boards the bus armed with a knife and commandeers the bus, driving it from Jacksonville, Ark., to Cabot, Ark., before police stop the bus. Miller is arrested and faces several charges, including a felony count of vehicle piracy, 12 felony counts of kidnapping and two felony counts of aggravated assault. Neither the bus driver nor the 11 students on the bus are injured.

The Greater Sudbury Police Service Traffic Management Unit cracked down on motorists who committed safety-related infractions in September, with the efforts focused in school zones. Among the offenses were 105 speeding violations, 15 hand-held device offenses for cell phone use and reports of illegal bus passing.

We need to develop a proactive approach — meaning run purposefully, hide intelligently and fight fiercely, in that order (fight only as a last resort) — to an active shooter scenario and teach it to everyone, especially students. The drill should be done in conjunction with local law enforcement personnel.

One or more students on a school bus in Laurel County, Ky., reportedly say that there is a bomb on board, and the bus stops at a weigh station. Numerous law enforcement officers — including a hazardous devices unit with a dog — respond to the scene, but no bomb is found in backpacks or elsewhere on the bus.

The increased maximum fine for a first offense of stop-arm running goes into effect Sept. 1. The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety says that his agency "will not tolerate individuals who disregard the law and illegally pass stopped school buses."

In Ripon, Calif., police catch a man allegedly in the act of stealing more than $2,000 worth of fuel from a storage tank used by school buses. The suspect reportedly had a trailer with hoses and pumping equipment for fast siphoning.

Authorities said that thieves have stolen diesel and gasoline — several hundred gallons at a time — from the Garrison, Martinsville, Chireno and Nacogdoches independent school districts. Video surveillance cameras have captured the suspect vehicle as a gold pickup pulling a trailer loaded with six tanks.

During the 2012-13 school year, police in New Britain, Conn., issued 88 illegal-passing citations as part of an enforcement program using the Redflex Student Guardian system. Four local school buses are equipped with the camera system.

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